The Allahabad High Court on Friday refused to allow the Gyanvapi mosque committee’s plea seeking an interim stay on puja inside the ‘Vyas Tehkhana’. The High Court directed the state government to maintain law and order in the area, reports Live Law.
On Wednesday night, a puja was held in mosque’s southern cellar, eight hours after the Varanasi district judge order allowing the resumption of Hindu prayers in the cellar, a practice said to have been discontinued three decades back.
The Gyanvapi mosque management committee approached the Supreme Court seeking an urgent hearing, challenging the district court order. But the top court asked the committee to move the Allahabad High Court, which it did later in the day.
During today’s hearing, Justice Rohit Ranjan refused to grant interim relief to the Muslim committee, emphasizing that they had not challenged the Varanasi district judge’s January 17 order, wherein the district magistrate was appointed as a receiver.
Earlier, after the Varanasi Court’s order, advocate Vishnu Shankar Jain, representing the Hindu side, had said, “In compliance with the Varanasi court’s order, the state government and district administration have adjusted the barricading, and daily Puja has commenced in ‘Vyas parivar Tehkhana.'”
Meanwhile, Akhlaq Ahmed, the lawyer representing the Muslim side, said, “We will approach the Allahabad High Court against the decision. The order has overlooked the Advocate Commissioner’s report of 2022, ASI’s report, and the decision of 1937, which was in our favor. The Hindu side has not presented any evidence that prayers were held before 1993. There is no such idol in the place.”
The mosque comprises four ‘tehkhanas’ (cellars) in the basement, with one remaining in the possession of the Vyas family, former residents of the complex.
This development follows a week after the Varanasi district administration took possession of the southern cellar of the Gyanvapi mosque complex on January 24. The administration’s action followed the Varanasi district court’s order on January 17, appointing the Varanasi District Magistrate as the receiver of the southern cellar of the mosque.
The court’s directions arose from a case filed by the head priest of Acharya Ved Vyas Peeth temple, Shailendra Kumar Pathak. A plea by advocate Vijay Shankar Rastogi to become a party to Vyas’s suit was rejected on the same day by the court.
District Judge Ajay Krishna Vishvesha reserved the verdict on Tuesday after the Anjuman Intezamia Masjid, the Gyanvapi mosque management committee, objected to the plea seeking permission for the worship of Shringar Gauri and other deities in the Gyanvapi mosque cellar.
The mosque committee argued that the plea was not maintainable as per the Places of Worship (Special Provisions) Act and the Waqf Act. In response to the court’s verdict, the Muslim side stated that they would explore the available legal options and move to higher courts to challenge the Varanasi court’s order.
